Chapter Five
Martha heard the discharge from the first airman's weapon and flinched, expecting her face to be sprayed with a thin spatter of blood. At this close range, there would be nothing left of her friend's skull, let alone his face.
She blinked when no garish deluge of flesh came, realizing that somehow Jack Harkness was still standing and in one piece.
It took her surprised brain cells a few seconds to process the picture before her, and then she finally grasped what had happened.
For some unknown reason, Tesla had knocked the soldier's M16 sideways as the MP had pulled the trigger. The move would have taken insanely fast reflexes she wouldn't have expected from a man his age. But then, as a Time Lord, he could well be far older than he appeared and still have far quicker reaction times than a human.
Jack didn't move, keeping his automatic trained on Tesla's forehead, but his breathing had quickened considerably. "Jeez, I guess you like me after all, huh?" He snarked, his wary eyes never leaving the newly discovered Gallifreyan.
"On the contrary," Tesla exhaled. "I simply have a better use for you…"
"Why here? Why now? Just who are you…?" The Doctor pushed past Jack and stood in front of Tesla, arms folded as if he expected the man to answer and obey him.
Tesla sniffed, apparently deciding whether he could be bothered to respond. He turned his back on the group, his head ticking towards the MPs at his side. Neither seemed to dare move after his recent physical rebuke, and he appeared satisfied with their obedience.
"Who am I?" Tesla finally intoned. "I am the Time Lord you should have been…you and those feeble-minded fools who ran Gallifrey in your world…"
"In my world?" The Doctor's brow knitted in concentration and Martha could have sworn she could actually see the cogs of his highly intelligent mind spinning into overdrive. After a moment, he ran a hand through the front of his hair, his eyes bulging. "Of course! It all makes perfect sense! You're from a parallel universe! But how…the void should be sealed…not even Rose can get back again…"
Tesla's wry smile faded and he actually looked angry. "There are always gaps. Tiny holes that a wandering soul in the time vortex can inadvertently fall through."
"Like when you, Rose and Mickey ended up with the Cybermen, in that steel world, yeah?" Martha suggested, remembering the stories the Doctor had told her of his earlier adventures.
"Except I didn't try to destroy that world to get home," the Doctor pointed out, an edge of irritation creeping into his voice. "All of this." He spun around, gesturing to the building's walls and beyond. "All of this mess, just so you can try and get back across the void?"
Tesla's smile returned. "Ah, but home is so much more real for me, Doctor. In my world, Gallifrey still exists. And one day soon, I shall rule it. Time Lords like you have no place there. There are those that looked into the heart of the Untempered Schism and embraced it, and then there are those who ran away…"
The Doctor cocked his head, scratching absently at his ear. "Well…I didn't run exactly, I like to think of it as more of a slow jog…or maybe a quick saunter…"
"In my world, only the strong survive. Your kind have been…removed…"
"Including me?" the Doctor quizzed, his mind still working furiously with the information he was being given. "I mean, the version of me from your universe?"
Tesla's smile grew into an even wider grin and he took down a breath as if the air he was breathing was some kind of ambrosia. "I took it upon myself to find and destroy the weakness poisoning my society. You ran from the gap in reality, and for that I killed you, and those like you."
The Doctor made a 'tutting' sound with his tongue and circled Tesla like he was dancing around the TARDIS's main console. "Ooh, but now you're stuck here, with another, obviously smarter version of me…funny old thing destiny, isn't it?"
"Destiny?" Tesla muttered dryly, as if he didn't believe in such a word. "I will simply have the pleasure of killing you twice, along with this world you love so much…"
"Okay, okay, can we just back up?" Jack's eyes darted from the Doctor, to Tesla, to Amy and back again. If he'd been confused before, he'd totally lost track of what was going on now. Finally letting the gun in his hand drop to his side, he wiped his brow with the back of his free sleeve. "Can we go back to the abridged version again?"
The Doctor nodded and Martha realized he was going to give one of his lengthy, speculative diatribes. "Let's see," he began. "The real Nikola Tesla was born back in 1856…I'm guessing that at some point around then, you fell through the gap in the void and decided to take his place." He looked up expectantly at the unnamed Time Lord. "Man of science, prominent figure…his guise was bound to become useful if you wanted to get home…"
"So you killed the real Tesla?" Martha asked, her face showing her disgust.
"He was surplus to my requirements, yes." Tesla didn't seem to realize murder was actually a crime in this dimension, or if he did, it was of little significance to him.
"So you killed the real geek, and have been using his credentials ever since to access the kinds of technologies that could get you home?" Jack nodded, finally understanding. "You found the Rift, decided to give it a little turbo boost, and then when I showed up and provided the vortex manipulator…"
"My needs were answered," Tesla acknowledged. "Of course, there's going to be collateral damage, but I will be long gone in…" he glanced at the glistening Rolex on his wrist, "oh, in the next ten minutes or so."
"You're using the Rift, or Schism or whatever you call it to get you back to another parallel world, and you don't care how many other worlds you destroy to do it? I thought Time Lords were supposed to protect the universe, not fry it!" Martha stepped up to Tesla and let her eyes burn into his.
He seemed to enjoy the confrontation, his own gaze never waning. "Like I said," he hissed through gritted teeth. "In my world, Gallifrey still exists. To rule it is to rule everything…"
Martha actually wanted to slap him – no, slap some sense into him. For someone so clever, he'd obviously overlooked the fact that his 'Rift' could easily tear his world apart too. The Doctor had said that earlier, and if she trusted anyone, she trusted him.
"So what now?" Jack stepped between Martha and Tesla, his actions suggesting he'd guessed what she was thinking. "You just take a dive through the Rift and hope you land back home? 'Cause, buddy, I gotta tell you, that's just plain nuts!" He gave the Doctor a quick glance. "Even more nuts than him…"
Tesla nodded. "Fools often mistake pure genius for insanity. But don't worry, everything is worked out to the last detail. When I ride the Schism, there won't be anything random about it…let's just say I have the perfect guidance system…"
"Oh really?" The Doctor's brow quirked up and he appeared genuinely surprised such a thing was possible. "Now where would you get such a sophisticated piece of technology, then? Nothing that complex on Earth at least…"
Tesla's hawk-like orbs glistened, but he refused to be drawn into giving an answer. "I'd love to stand and chat about the intricacies of time travel further, but I really do have a ride booked, and I'd hate to be late." He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again his mouth quirked sarcastically at the edges. "Don't worry…I'll leave you all with a little light entertainment. Wouldn't want you to get bored…"
Jack raised his automatic again and the guards spun to confront him.
Tesla ignored their retaliatory move and stood fast, smiling down the barrel of the weapon. "Jack, my boy, you really shouldn't risk your life so. You're not immortal yet…"
The Time Agent stiffened, his grasp on the gun faltering just enough for Tesla to grab it from him with the same lightning moves he'd used to knock away the M16.
"Spoilers!" The Doctor groaned. "First you come along and start tinkering with the Rift, and now you're giving out spoilers! Oh we can't have this…"
Jack looked at the Doctor and his brow furrowed just enough to show his confusion. "Immortal?" His eyes moved back to Tesla. "What do you mean by immortal?"
Tesla simply shrugged. "Within the next few minutes, it really won't matter anymore anyway." He slid his hands into his pockets and then nodded to the two MPs. "And now I really must be leaving. My associates here will take you to your…" He rubbed a hand across his mouth as if thinking. "To see some old friends…"
Without saying more, Tesla moved swiftly to the control room door and vanished down a never-ending corridor.
The Doctor clasped his hands together and smiled at the two airmen who'd been left to shepherd them. "Right then! Where we off to now? Spot of afternoon tea? Oh no…we're in America…no Earl Grey and crumpets…"
"I'm thinking you're more likely to get a taste of gun oil and lead," Jack offered as the first soldier prodded him with the butt of his rifle, ushering the Time Agent and his companions into a second corridor.
"Lead? Nah, can't say as that's very tasty, although the Scree of Molkor Five seem to thrive on it…'course they'd take a bite of anything when they're hungry. Bit like a swarm of Vashta Narada I once knew…"
"Does he ever shut up?" Jack looked at Martha and she shook her head apologetically.
"Only when he's asleep…and sometimes he talks in that too."
Jack grinned crudely. "Oh yeah?"
"Oi! It's not like that! Don't you ever think of anything else?" Martha saw one of their guards throw her a look that said he didn't believe her either. She brushed off the insinuation and carried on walking.
"Me, think of anything else?" Jack thought about it. "Not very often," he admitted. "I'm all for the sex, guns and the odd vortex manipulator."
"Not that he knows how to use one," the Doctor chimed in. "Time agents," he grumbled. "Wouldn't know a time stream if it jumped up and threw them into another dimension!"
"Look who's talking!" Jack retorted as the first MP took a key from his pocket and opened up a large blast door to their right. "You're a Time Lord and look what a fine mess you got us into!"
"He sounds like Oliver Hardy!" The Doctor brushed away Jack's jibe with a counter insult and then was forced forwards by the guards into a large rectangular room.
"Yeah, well that must make you Stan Laurel…and then some," Martha sighed, following the Doctor inside the huge chamber with Jack bringing up the rear.
She looked around, arms folded, checking out the bland metal walls that appeared to be their new prison. "Lot of room for just three detainees?" She addressed both soldiers.
The second man smirked at her, his face creasing until he looked like a wizened pug. "Don't worry, it will soon fill up…" Not giving any further explanation, he and the other MP turned tail, sealing the blast door closed behind them.
"Jeez, they're a cryptic bunch, huh?" Jack pondered, quickly scanning the walls for a way of escape. After a couple of seconds, he paused, but not because he'd found a way out. "So, are you gonna tell me what that freaky relative of yours meant by 'immortal'?"
The Doctor began examining an electronic port that may or may not have been some kind of interior mechanism for the blast door. He didn't look up as he responded. "We're really, really, really not related, you know. He's far too pompous…and I soooo can't tell you about the immortal bit. Well…I could, but then that would be me compounding the damage to future timelines by increasing the size of the actual paradox which…"
"Will you just tell me?" Jack raised his voice enough to startle Martha and she watched as the Doctor finally stopped tinkering and looked the Time Agent in the eye.
She instantly recognized the face.
The Doctor was sad, not because the world was going to end in the next few minutes if they didn't stop it, but because Jack shouldn't have to face his own indestructibility just yet.
"I really can't die?" Jack pushed again, and this time the Doctor finally answered.
"You can die here and now, but in the future something happens…something I should have stopped…"
Jack frowned. "You make it sound like living forever is a bad thing. C'mon, think of all the fun I can have."
"Watching friends, people you care about wither and die, and you live on…it's not fun, believe me…" The Doctor spoke as if the sorrow was his own, and Martha knew that he was talking from experience.
Being a Time Lord was an interminable, lonely existence. And soon, Jack would learn what it was like first hand.
Martha stepped between the two men, arms folded. "We should escape first, talk later. Can you open the door?" She cocked one brow at the Doctor and he beamed back.
"Oh yessssss! Just need to find the right frequencies on the old sonic and…"
From behind them there was a hydraulic murmur followed by a metallic grumble. All three turned to see a second blast door opening. The huge sheet of metal retracted fully into the sidewall until the chamber became twice its original size.
And beyond the second door stood another wall – a shouting, rabid barrier of human bodies that had once been a group of sentient beings.
Now, the creatures were reduced to flesh-craving monsters.
Monsters that needed to kill and feed.
"You know, I really wouldn't call them old friends…" The Doctor grimaced and then whirled back around, frantically waving the sonic screwdriver at the access port. The console beeped and chirped as he bombarded it with different electrical impulses, but it refused to budge.
Martha took a step backwards until her spine met with the resistance of the metal tomb they'd been deposited in. She ignored the coolness of the steel along her backbone, instead watching as the 'zombies' began to slowly move towards them.
The ringleader appeared to be a small woman – definitely an office worker of some sort. She was in uniform, but all of her military training was gone now, replaced by some primal urge to feed.
The brunette's eyes whirled and she seemed to latch onto Martha as her target. The coldness of her eyes and the deathly pale pallor of her features were too much for the young doctor to bear, and Martha dragged her gaze away, focusing back on the Doctor.
"How much longer?" she snapped, unable to hide the irritation and fear in her voice.
"She has a point, Brains, we have no weapons, and I don't fancy going hand to hand with a mob that size…" Jack frowned as the Time Lord seemed to ignore him.
"Oh, I don't plan on fighting! Never was very good at fisticuffs and all that…not too sure I can get the door open just yet either…the security coding in this section is just brilliant!! Definitely Time Lord technology!"
Martha couldn't help but raise her voice, even if she knew the Doctor hadn't actually given in. "But you said you could open the door!"
"Well…I never said when…"
Jack looked over his shoulder and realized the crowd had moved forwards. They weren't exactly charging, in fact, it was more like the gait of the walking dead, but they'd still be chowing on human flesh within the minute if something didn't happen.
"Doctor!"
Something fizzed inside the console the Doctor was working on, and a thin plume of blue smoke rose out of the access hole. As the smoke ebbed away, something inside began to spark in unison with the blue tip of the Time Lord's sonic screwdriver.
Behind them, one by one, the human 'zombies' began to drop.
Martha heard the first body slap into the concrete floor and she whirled, confused by the sudden turnabout of events.
As she watched, eyes wide open, more of their enemy collapsed until not one was left standing. She took a tentative step forwards, edging towards the uniformed brunette, who now lay on her side, gurgling like a small baby.
The woman looked so harmless now – no, more than that – helpless.
Martha wished there was something she could do. She had wanted to be a doctor so that she could help people, save people, and at times like this it pained her not to be able to do anything.
Something moved at her side, and she looked up to see Jack hovering over her and the dying woman. For the first time, she saw sympathy in his normally wicked gaze.
"Doc says we need to hurry. He doesn't know how long his override of the dish controls will hold from here."
Martha nodded glumly and rose back to her feet. They couldn't do anything here, but maybe they could stop the rest of the world turning into mulch. She hurried back over to the Doctor with Jack in tow.
"You hotwired the radar dish from here then?"
The Doctor shrugged, still meddling in the wall with his sonic. "I disabled the deadlocks while I was talking to Tesla back in the radar control room…Sleight of hand, just like David Copperfield! 'Course I still had to relay the management system to this console and redirect the feeds so we were transmitting, not receiving…"
Jack waved his hand with a grimace. "I think we get the picture…kinda. Now can we please get this damn door open?"
The Doctor grinned and tapped a new setting into the sonic. As the tip flashed, the huge blast door slid back and they were free. "Chop chop!" He bounced through the gap and then ushered his two friends out with a rapid wave of his hand. "C'mon then! We've got two generators to disable!"
Jack and Martha obeyed, watching in amazement as the blast door slipped back into place, sealing off all the affected 'zombies'.
"Okay, so that was just weird."
"No time to worry about weird!" The Doctor skipped backwards to a junction in the maze of corridors. "You need to take Martha and shut down the station's auxiliary generator while I deal with the one in the Rift room!"
"You mean I actually get the girl?" Jack looked impressed. "Okay, so gimme a gun and I'll die happy…" He looked up, momentarily caught out by his own words. "While I can still die, that is…"
When the Doctor didn't reply, he shrugged and began to jog off down the corridor towards his target. They had little time for words, after all.
"Oi!" Martha, however, wasn't going to just accept the plan at face value. The Doctor wanted to go it alone, and that worried her. The greater the risk, the more he'd want her out of the danger. Except her mind didn't work that way. "Why do I get stuck with He-Man?" She put her hands on her hips, emphasizing the words.
The Time Lord sighed as if he knew this confrontation was inevitable. The false smile on his face waned and he pinched the brow of his nose.
For the first time, Martha realized the Doctor looked tired – or was it more defeated?
"You can't go near the Schism, you know that," he didn't look her in the eye as he spoke. "The energy it's creating would tear a human apart cell by cell. You saw what those people were reduced to, and they weren't exposed to the core of the spatial tear…"
"And what about you?"
Again the hesitation, the deferred glance. The Doctor didn't lie per se, but he was very good at obfuscation.
"I'll be fine." The cheesy smile returned, but Martha knew it was for her sake. "I'm a Time Lord remember? Played with roentgen bricks as a kid, got struck by lightning on the Empire State Building … a little old hole in time and space is all in a day's work!"
"Except it isn't, is it?" Martha glanced after Harkness, but didn't attempt to follow him. Not yet. "What will the Rift do to you? I mean really do to you?"
The Doctor began to pace. "It won't do anything," he said in an almost irritated tone. "At least, not if I get out quick enough. And you know I'm fast on my feet."
He looked up at Martha and she knew the expression well enough to know he wasn't going to back down.
"You don't need to worry about me. You need to worry about Jack. I need you to make sure nothing happens to him," he continued, his words getting faster. "He's still young, headstrong…can't have him getting killed here or…"
"And what if you get killed here?" Martha countered. "Don't tell me it isn't possible, you're not immortal either!"
"Can't die here, we still have to go to Gettysburg!" The Doctor grinned, and Martha knew any kind of bargaining time she'd had was gone. "Go look after Jack. And if the Rift doesn't close, get back to the TARDIS." He pulled a disc from his pocket. "Emergency override protocols," he explained. "Jack should be able to get you to another timeline with this. Maybe far enough away from the ripple effect…"
"We're not leaving you!"
The Time Lord's face grew cold. "Yes you are, Martha Jones, because if the Rift doesn't close…if I haven't sealed it by the time you've shut down the secondary generator…it means…" He turned away then and began to jog down the opposite corridor to the one Jack had taken. "Oh…you know what it means…"
Martha's eyes began to fill up, but she bit back the tears as the familiar overcoat and its owner disappeared into the bowels of Montauk.
"You can't die here," she whispered, brushing moisture from her cheek as she set off after Jack. "You just can't…"
The Doctor winced as his All Stars skidded along the floor, squeaking as the rubber dragged across the tiles too quickly. But it wasn't just the excess noise making him scowl.
Martha knew.
As sure as he knew every star in the Universe, Martha Jones knew he was attempting something even his body might not withstand.
Would she try to follow? In honesty, knowing Martha it was a distinct possibility once her own task had been completed.
And he couldn't allow that to happen. He couldn't let Martha and Jack Harkness come back here to their doom.
The Doctor quickened his pace further, until when he took the final corner he almost tripped over the abundance of bodies littering the walkway.
He stumbled, catching the wall with his left arm to narrowly escape losing his balance.
"I'm so sorry," he mumbled, sorrow-filled eyes falling onto the sea of corpses.
These were the people he had disabled with the radar dish. But these bodies were far from intact. They had been too close to project room doors when they had fallen.
Too close to the every expanding Rift/Schism energy.
Even if he hadn't rendered them unconscious, they wouldn't have escaped its effects, but somehow, that didn't make the Time Lord feel any better as he scanned the mass of tangled, warped limbs.
It was like looking upon a badly assembled jigsaw puzzle where pieces had been forced together that were never meant to mate with one another. Cells had been destroyed, some restructured until Wes Craven would have been proud of the results.
The Doctor was glad Martha wasn't here to see this. Glad that she wasn't being affected in a similar way, even if at some level he already was.
He stepped over what may once have been a young soldier, although only the cloth of his uniform now gave his species away. As he skipped over a second cadaver, his foot caught on something thin and translucent, and he paused, kneeling to inspect it.
The obstruction was a cable that snaked across the corridor, and for the most part had been hidden by the throng of bodies. The Doctor slid on his glasses, inspecting the pulsing wire with a curious squint. "Ooh…now what have we here then…?"
He slid a hand under the cable, following it like a buddy line. One end appeared to feed into the project room, but the other led off into the adjacent passageway. "Definitely some kind of information conduit…like a super fast, super efficient fibre optic connection with …"
The Doctor edged around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth opening in both shock and uncertainty. Of all the things he had expected Tesla to be using as a guidance system, this wasn't one of them.
"What…what…WHAT!!"
The TARDIS sat squarely in the middle of the corridor, its door open to allow the cable connection to its time vortex guidance systems. The light on the top throbbed dully with each pulse of information it sent out.
The Doctor's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish and he backed up, wide eyes examining the blue police box.
At first glance, he'd thought this was his ship, taken from Montauk's grounds and hotwired into Tesla's systems, but upon closer scrutiny he realized it was something much more.
His TARDIS was the type 40 – a model long obsolete even before he'd acquired it. While this specimen was still ancient by human standards, it was of a newer design. A few circuits here, an improved and yet still fatally flawed chameleon circuit there…
The Doctor stopped his appraisal, remembering that his first priority was to stop Tesla. And to stop his enemy, he needed to cut the feed from the ship's centre console.
Warily stepping inside, the Time Lord felt a familiar tingle.
It was like stepping home, into his TARDIS.
He closed his eyes, feeling the hum of the ship pulsate through every cell in his body. He was one with the biological machine, perfectly tuned to its systems. He could sense it, feel it – he was part of it.
The Doctor's eyes snapped back open and he ran a hand over the keypad controls.
This wasn't Tesla's ship from another dimension, this was his ship from another dimension. Tesla had admitted to killing 'The Doctor' in his parallel world, and when he had done so, he had stolen this TARDIS.
The ship seemed to sense the Time Lord's deductions and the thrumming from its systems grew in intensity. It was prisoner to a mad man, and the Doctor would set it free.
Patting the console, he moved to where the cable fed into the heart of the machine. Once disconnected, Tesla would have no control over where the Rift took him – if he hadn't already departed.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic and began to alter its settings until it thrummed in time with the TARDIS. Pointing it at the live feed, he closed his eyes, took a breath, and then flicked the screwdriver's 'on' button.
The cable ceased to flash, its outer core turning to a plain grey as the data feed stopped.
He patted the side of the console affectionately and yanked away the cable like he was pulling a thorn from an innocent child. "It's all over now, girl…"
The pained hum from the TARDIS died and the Doctor sighed. It was time to enter the project room and face Tesla if he was still in this world. While the Rift was no longer controllable, it still needed closing or else…
Rising from beneath the console, the Doctor headed for the door at a quick jog, stopping only when he reached one of the outer support joists. He couldn't leave this injured TARDIS here. If the Rift's effects were to kill him when he chased after Tesla, then its technology would fall into hands that were not ready for such wonders – even in this state of disrepair.
He whirled around, sprinting like a greyhound back to the keypad and screen. Quickly bringing up the ship's systems, he realized that Tesla had crashed through the void, damaging several of the TARDIS's circuits. While Tesla could easily have breathed life back into the power cells as the Doctor had in the 'steel world', the one thing Tesla didn't have here was the technology to replace the fused circuits.
"Simple little chrono chips…and it stopped you flying home…"
Sifting through his left jacket pocket, the Doctor pulled out two lollipops, a Band Aid, and a bottle opener. Not quite what he'd been looking for.
Trying again, he rummaged in the right pocket, bringing out the psychic paper, a Harry Potter hardback, and finally, finally a strange alien device that looked like it belonged in the 51st century, and probably did.
"Molto Bene!"
The Doctor's grin widened and he began taking the item apart like it was a piece of Lego. At its centre, he found the two circuits he was looking for and swiftly pulled them free. He examined the bio-boards for compatibility and then jammed them into a section of the console that looked like it had been made out of egg cartons.
The TARDIS's rotor vibrated appreciatively, and the usual green glow began to seep back into the static column.
"Right! Time to send you home…or err…well, not quite home, but to someone who knows how to look after you. At least, I hope he knows how to look after you…never did really have much time for chit chat…not with all that snogging going on…"
The Doctor began to frantically type in co-ordinates and set the TARDIS to automatically gravitate to them without a pilot. Giving the bicycle pump a good few squeezes, he released the handbrake and darted for the door.
As he jumped clear, the TARDIS began to wheeze and cough until its frame started to turn translucent. In another two seconds, she was gone – a ghost, lost to another world, another dimension.
The Doctor took a breath. He had sent the ship to someone who could protect it, someone who would use it.
Someone who was part of it.
"Right then! Let's go plug a hole!" Stuffing his hands in his overcoat pockets, he sighed and walked towards the Rift room doors. The effects were getting too strong here, even for his kind.
He could feel the pull at every cell in his body.
Was Tesla feeling it?
The Doctor reached out to activate the door controls and then stopped. To his left, hanging from a section of hooks on the wall, were several red outfits that reminded him of antigrav space suits.
Had Tesla found a way to partially shield himself from the Rift energy?
Scooting over, the Doctor ran his sonic over the material. It was denser than it looked or felt, and touching the rough surface of the cloth made his fingertips tingle. He shrugged and plucked down the suit that most reasonably matched his size.
"In for a penny, in for a pound….or should that be out of the frying pan and into a great big pan of…Oooh, I've been around Jack too long…" He zipped the front closed and slid on the helmet.
Visibility wasn't great, but if the cumbersome guise bought him time…
Time, something he'd run out of the moment he'd come within two hundred yards of the project room.
He thought of Jack, and of Martha, and of all the friends he had known in this incarnation and he closed his eyes, sending them a silent message he knew they would never hear.
If we meet again we'll smile indeed; If not, 'tis true this parting was well made…
Taking a breath, he let a gloved hand open the project room door and he stepped inside, facing the raw, noxious energy of the pulsing maelstrom…
To Be Continued...